Shana van der Vlist has made solid progress in WMX Championship standing 5th Overall with Final Round at MXGP of Turkey in 2 weeks time.
What has been stand-out success for the KTM rider has been consistency of results: 5th, 8th, 5th and 7th over 4 Rounds pushing the 20 year old to maintain top 5 position, even under pressure from fast approaching fellow Dutch rider Lynn Valk.
Proving, Shana has made improvements to race-craft having gained extra race-time competing in 2019 EMX Women MX Championship and finishing 2nd behind WMX Champion 4x Steffi Laier.
And it’s not just race technique that Shana has upskilled on, analysis of races, pin-point precision on where improvemnets need to made and acknowledging when riding was good and where can-do-better exists.
As Shana states: ‘WMX Round 4 went pretty well. In the practices I was getting used to the track and it felt good. The first moto I took a really bad start unfortunately. Outside the top 20 I had to fight my way back to the front and I finished 7th’.
‘My riding was good, so I was happy about that. I was really focused on the second moto, to take a better start. Again my start was not the best, around 15th place. I felt good on my bike and I came back to 6th’.
If there were key areas where Shana has made special focus to improve- starts and pushing through field making passes count would top the list.
#188: ‘I think the starts are really important. If you don’t start in front, you can never catch up with the top 5 girls. So the main key is to start in front, that is the only way you can battle for the top 5 spot’.
Learing a new track in Free Practice, to racing Imola’s hard-pack, rutty sections, along with big jumps is definitely learning curve for any rider, no more so than for the petite 250F rider. Yet, not only did Shana handle the challenging track surface, #188 passed where needed to place just 1 point shy of 6th place Overall.
#188: ‘I liked the track. It was challenging for everyone. In the practices there were already a lot of ruts, so I could get used to it. The jumps were really difficult and big, but I liked them’.
With logistics to handle on getting bikes from Italy to Turkey, Shana takes it all on board, sorting in priority what needs to be done, what works and what goals are still left to tick off come end of WMX season at Afyon Motor Sports Centre.
#188: ‘After Imola it was a stressful week for us, because the team that would take my bikes to Turkey, they cancelled just before Italy. We were able to find another solution luckily, so that was on my mind first’.
‘But now the focus is back on racing again. I can only ride just one more time, before my bikes leave. I will keep my focus on starts, practice and the 2 weeks before Turkey, I will do a lot of physical training’.
WMX Final Round at MXGP of Turkey September 7-8th.
Words: Sharon Cox.
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